News worthy of the headline… Which would you choose?

February 8, 2013 by · 1 Comment 
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Selecting the news for a newspaper’s headline must be quite challenging at times, especially when there are multiple significant events clamoring for top billing. We recently came across a Leominster Daily Enterprise, MA, April 16, 1947, which had 5 noteworthy events to choose from:

*  Execution of Rudolf Hoess, Nazi commandant of Auschwitz… oversaw massacre of 2,000,000 Jews

*  Milton Reynolds breaks Howard Hughes around-the-world aviation record in his “Bombshell”

* Jackie Robinson breaks racial barrier… 1st regular season MLB game played by an African American

* Texas City disaster (350 killed)

* Princess Elizabeth and Philip Mountbatten (from Greece) become engaged, with photo

Which do you think grabbed the headline back in 1947?To find out if you made the right choice, go to:

1947 Headline

(see the 4th image)

What if the same events occurred today?  Would the editors make the same choice for tomorrow’s headline? We’d love to know your thoughts… and reasons.

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Filed under: Food for Thought, Newspaper Collecting Ideas, Noteworthy Issues, Sports, The 20th & 21st Centuries, The Hobby
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The Traveler… finally ratified… income tax a reality…

February 4, 2013 by · Leave a Comment 
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Today I traveled to Salt Lake City, Utah, by the way of the Deseret Semi-Weekly News, February 3, 1913. There I found that on this very same date, the Sixteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution had just been ratified by the voted received from the Wyoming legislature. This amendment now established Income Tax as a provision of the Constitution.

This passing, which required a three-quarter of the Union approval, took a long time to occur as Alabama was the first state to ratify the amendment and that was on August 10, 1909!

Now with this information, enjoy your remaining seventy (70) days of the tax season. April 15th will be here before we all know it!

~The Traveler

“A democracy is always temporary in nature; it simply cannot exist as a permanent form of government. A democracy will continue to exist up until the time that voters discover that they can vote themselves generous gifts from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates who promise the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result that every democracy will finally collapse due to loose fiscal policy…”

– Alexander Tytler 1787 (disputed origin)

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Filed under: The 20th & 21st Centuries, The Hobby
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A shocking cure for what ails you…

February 1, 2013 by · Leave a Comment 
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Here’s an interesting medical devise which never seemed to catch on, as reported in the “Scientific American” issue of March 14, 1891. I wonder how many investors in this product were shocked when this one went belly-up?

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Filed under: Illustrated Newspapers, Post Civil War, Unusual, Fun & Bizarre
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West Virginia’s first newspapers…

January 28, 2013 by · Leave a Comment 
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The history of West Virginia newspapers dates some 70 years before West Virginia became a state. Statehood came late to West Virginia, carved from Virginia in the midst of the Civil War, happening officially on June 20, 1863. But its first newspaper began in 1790 when Nathaniel Willis began his “Potowmac Guardian & Berkeley Advertiser” at Shepherd’s-Town, near Harper’s Ferry.  Less than two years later Willis moved the newspaper to Martinsburg.

The second newspaper was the “Shepherd’s Town, Charles-Town and County Advertiser” begun by Philip Rootes and Charles Blagrove on June 28, 1797. No copies beyond October 11, 1797 have been located. The third newspaper was the “Berkeley Intelligencer” done at Martinsburg on April 3, 1799 by John Alburtis.  Many followed, including what is shown in the image, “The Observer, and Western Advertiser”, Lewisburg, [West] Virgina, 1884.

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Filed under: Common Questions, Newspaper Collecting Ideas, Noteworthy Issues, Pre Civil War, The 1700's, Valuation of Issues
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Pictures… Is a thousand words always enough?

January 27, 2013 by · Leave a Comment 
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The New York Times of October 20, 1862 includes a wonderful article which eloquently combats any romanticized view of the Civil War. Sometimes, far from the realities of the slaughter (in time and distance), we fail to properly connect with the tragedy and horror experienced by so many. The article includes, in part, “There is one side of the picture that the sun did not catch, one phase that has escaped photographic skill it is the background of widows and orphans, torn from the bosom of their natural protectors by the red remorseless hand of Battle, and thrown upon the brotherhood of God. Homes have been made desolate, and the light of life in thousands of hearts has been quenched forever. All of this desolation imagination must paint — broken hearts cannot be photographed.” Rather than say more, we’ll let the article speak for itself. The actual original article itself may be viewed in full at:

Brady’s Photographs; Pictures of the Dead at Antietam

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Filed under: Civil War, Collecting Newspapers, Confederate, Noteworthy Issues, The Hobby, Yankee
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Summing up the Revolutionary War through 1779…

January 25, 2013 by · Leave a Comment 
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The front page of “The Edinburgh Advertiser“, July 23, 1779, has a great letter (see below) signed by “An Englishman” which pretty much sums up the Revolutionary War through the mid-point of 1779. Never before have I seen a more accurate appraisal of the situation in so few words.

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Filed under: Noteworthy Issues, Revolutionary War, The 1500's - 1700's, The Rare Newspapers Community
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The Traveler… The Emancipation… the last look… and today…

January 21, 2013 by · Leave a Comment 
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This week I traveled 150 years back in time and through the activities of the Civil War via the Harper’s Weekly dated January 24, 1863. This issue contains a double-page illustration by Thomas Nast entitled “The Emancipation of the Negroes, January, 1863 – The Past and The Future.” Mr. Nast shows their present life in the center circle, of a happy home including a picture of President Lincoln hanging on the wall. The illustrations to the left show obstacles they had to endure — being sold at auctions and separated from loved ones, beatings, and being chased (if running away). The illustrations to the right show what they are looking to in the future with the implementation of the Emancipation Proclamation — owning a home, children going to public school, being treated fairly by the employer and being paid for working.

This illustration has an accompanying article that describes the illustration and also includes text from the Tribune of March 11, 1859, which dealt with the largest single sale of humans (slaves) in the United States. Mr. Pierce M. Butler of a city near Savannah, Georgia, sold 486 slaves — men, women and children — to pay his debts. This gives a prospective of what the slaves had to endure as they were being separated from each other as family members and long term friends.

As a contrast , this issue also presents a look into the past with an illustration and small article, “A Slave-Pen at New Orleans – Before the Auction. A Sketch of the Past.”

Today we also celebrate Martin Luther King, Jr. day. Let us all remember his famous words… “Free at last. Free at last. Thank God Almighty we are free at last.“

~The Traveler

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The Assassination of Abraham Lincoln… one the the very best…

January 18, 2013 by · Leave a Comment 
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The April 22, 1865 issue of the National Police Gazette, New York, printed what many consider to be the best illustrated newspaper related to the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln. Judge for yourself. Regardless of your final analysis, please enjoy the images from this incredible authentic newspaper compliments of Timothy Hughes Rare & Early Newspapers… History’s Newsstand… via Pinterest:

The Assassination of President Abraham Lincoln illustrated by the National Police Gazette… on Pinterest…

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Filed under: Civil War, Illustrated Newspapers, Newspaper Collecting Ideas, Noteworthy Issues, The Private Collection, Yankee
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Patrick Henry bio in the Citizen Soldier… 1840…

January 16, 2013 by · Leave a Comment 
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The following is a 2nd look at a post from a few years ago.  We’ve updated the images to make the text easier to read.  Please enjoy.

Although much has been written about Patrick Henry, a December 18, 1840 issue of the Citizen Soldier, Vermont, gives us a glimpse as to how he was viewed within less than 50 years of his death. The end of the biography has a few extra treats as well. Although quite lengthy… it is certainly worth the read:

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Filed under: Colonial, Food for Thought, Noteworthy Issues, Revolutionary War, The 1700's, The Hobby
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A gem in the American Antiquarian Society… Charleston Mercury Extra…

January 14, 2013 by · Leave a Comment 
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In celebration of its 20oth anniversary the American Antiquarian Society published a beautiful  exhibition catalog titled “In Pursuit Of A Vision – Two Centuries of Collecting at the American Antiquarian Society”. Featured are a fascinating array of books, documents, maps & other paper ephemera, as well as several very rare & unusual newspapers we felt worthy of sharing with our Rare & Early Newspapers’ collectors (with permission from the A.A.S.).

“Charleston Mercury Extra“, December 20, 1860

The divisive political events of the 1850s had pitted North against South on numerous issues, including the expansion of slavery into the western territories, tariffs on goods such as cotton, and broader concepts of states’ rights vs. federal law. Political compromises made throughout the decade in an attempt to keep the nation together effectively collapsed with the election of Abraham Lincoln in November 1860. South Carolina, heir to the legacy of states’ rights lion John C. Calhoun, was the first to address the possibility of leaving the Union. On November 10, 1860, four days after the presidential election, South Carolina brought the issue to a head by calling a secession convention for the following month.

Considered by virtue of timing to be the first Confederate imprint, this broadside announced to the public the convention’s declaration, on December 20, 1860, that South Carolina would secede from the United States. This sheet was removed from a wall in Charleston by the Boston-born author Caroline Howard Gilman (1794-1888), who had moved permanently to Charleston following her marriage to the Rev. Samuel Gilman. Gilman mailed the broadside to her daughter Eliza in Salem, Massachusetts. Eliza in turn presented the document to AAS member Nathaniel Paine who, heeding the Society’s call to preserve all printed material relating to the unsettling national events, passed the broadside along to AAS.

A high-resolution image of this issue is viewable at: American Antiquarian Society, #47

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